Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

Posted: 02/26/08

While developers struggle to create strategy games for the consoles, Advance Wars has been showing how it’s done on a handheld for quite some time. Its therapeutic, turn-by-turn play is perfect for infrequent bursts, but for all its refinement, it’s also nearing the dreaded tag of formulaic. Days of Ruin takes a decidedly more sober tone, but not a lot has changed. If you’ve played this series before, then you know that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Meteors have smashed into the surface of the planet, sending the world into chaos. It’s a mad scramble for remaining resources, with warring nations taking up their last remaining armaments to satisfy their objectives. You play as Will. Caught up in the post-apocalyptic madness, he joins a military faction with the typical lot of characters. The firm but fair leader, the brainy scientist, the raging maniac of an antagonist—they’re all here. Past games in the series have used Technicolor palettes and gee wiz moments, but the grim setting here improves the depth of the main character. The story is told though stills and screen after screen of competently-written text. Altogether it’s enough glue to hold the game together through the length of the campaign.

When it comes to content in handheld games, it’s not easy topping Days of Ruin. The card is stuffed with modes and options, highlighted by the solo campaign that stretches on for over 20 arduous missions. Along the way extra training missions are unlocked, presenting the stiffest challenge in the game. Well, aside from other human beings, of course.

You’ll get plenty of chances to do just that with extensive local and Wi-Fi multiplayer suites. There are over 50 maps to choose from with the option to create and download new ones. Online support is fairly customizable, and you don’t need someone’s friend code to find some organic competition. It also includes voice chat, for better or worse. It’s a great example of how to design an online, handheld game.

Days of Ruin is real-time strategy 101. You have land, sea, and air units that each have their own statistics for movement, attacks, ammo, and fuel consumption. Factories produce more ground-based units based upon how many cities you’ve captured on the map, while ports and airports can be constructed to create new ships and planes. Toss in different types of terrain that alter the effectiveness of each unit and the occasional fog of war and you have the recipe for Advance Wars. It’s the same formula that has buoyed the series for years now, and not much has changed here.

The few additions include carriers that can transport multiple units and then travel and drop in the same turn, and a few new offensive options like the anti-tank, which has limited attack range, but will always counter fire with some umph. Otherwise, it’s basically the same turn-based, military-focused action fans have come to expect. Once you get past the first few missions, each turn can take an excruciatingly long time to commit to. There’s just so much to look at and strategize. It’s like chess times ten.

Advance Wars is the perfect TV-watching companion. You can take as long as you like with each turn and even save the game mid-battle to come back to later. Some battles can take, literally, an hour to complete, and you’ll get stuck in the ebb and flow the skirmish, unable to discern if you’re gaining momentum. Forty-five minutes later you realize it’s a lost cause and you have to start over from the beginning, which can be rather frustrating. Some missions are undoubtedly designed for singular strategies. Either you do what the game wants you to do or you lose. This trial-and-error process can eventually grate on the nerves.

Even so, you won’t find a deeper, yet still accessible, strategy game on any handheld. Each unit type requires a new angle to succeed, and when you mix them all together the puzzles can be mind-bending. While there’s touch screen support, you’re best off just using the D-pad and buttons to play, though the top screen does come in handy when examining units.

If you’re looking for a game to push your DS to the limit, you won’t find it here. Days of Ruin, despite its edgier appearance, still uses simple sprite graphics for the battlefield and units. Once an attack has been initiated it switches to some pseudo 3D art that looks blurry and horribly pixelated. It’s nice to see the units animate and deliver their payload, but we can’t help but think that it could look a lot better than this. The soundtrack consists of some nice compositions, though they tend to repeat a little too often. Such is the case when you’re creating games for a medium with limited storage space.

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is a nice continuation of the series, but there’s very little here that’s unexpected or particularly clever. The darker story is a nice touch, and it will undoubtedly ensnare players who normally skip through the text in these types of games, but if you’ve tried it before and didn’t like it, that’s unlikely to change. Fans of the franchise will appreciate the wealth of modes and options and subtle additions, and whether it’s your cup of tea or not, it still has no rival on the handheld front.

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